Admist of the controversy over “imposition of Hindi” as a part of continuation of the three-language formula, what has been missed in the draft National Education Policy (NEP) is the proposal to make English “available and taught in a high quality manner at all government and non-government schools.
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Even though the NEP committee took a critical view of English becoming a language of elite, it has observed that since most high-level scientific journals are predominantly in English, it is important for children to become bilingual in science and be able to communicate science fluently both in their home/local language and in English.
The dominance of English, the draft NEP 2019 says, has resulted in marginalisation of large sections of society based on language, keeping them out of high-paying jobs and higher socio-economic strata as it recommends equitable development of native Indian languages along with teaching of English in all government-run schools.